Growth In Trust Operations Boosts Northern`s Net 19.7%

Management attributed the increase to Northern`s heavy trust business, where earnings were boosted by favorable market conditions and growing volume. The spread between what the bank pays for its money and the interest it charges for loans also was improved by falling interest rates, company officials said.

Northern`s trust business has made it one of the banks most dependent on fees in the nation, with 55 percent of its revenue coming from noninterest income in the quarter. Noninterest income was $98.3 million, up 11 percent from 1990. Net interest income on a fully taxable equivalent basis was $80.3 million, up 17 percent from a year earlier.

Non-performing assets March 31 were $89.8 million, or 1.5 percent of loans, up from $73.7 million, or 1.33 percent of loans, Dec. 31.

Northern, with $11.9 billion in assets, had an annualized return on assets of 1.04 percent in the quarter.